[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – Assistant Senate
Majority Leader Dick Durbin (D-IL) sent a letter today to Kamalesh
Sharma, Secretary General of the Commonwealth Nations, urging him to
launch an investigation into the case of Chief Ebrima Manneh, a Gambian
journalist who has been held incommunicado and without charge for
almost four years.

“Mr. Manneh’s disappearance
and the Gambian Government’s ongoing refusal to account for his
whereabouts are in direct contradiction of the strong human rights
standards embraced by the Commonwealth,” Durbin wrote. “Undoubtedly
many members of the Commonwealth also share our concern about the
deteriorating political and human rights situation in the Gambia, an
issue you raised at the recent Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting
in Trinidad and Tobago. Accordingly, we respectfully ask that you
investigate Mr. Manneh’s disappearance and press Gambian President
Jammeh not only for his immediate release, but also to reverse the
Gambia’s poor human rights record.”

Chief
Manneh was reportedly detained in July 2006 for political reasons by
plainclothes police officers thought to have been from the Gambian
National Intelligence Agency. Some reports suggest that he is being
held at the Fatoto Police Station in eastern Gambia, at Mile Two
Prison, or a National Intelligence Agency compound in Serekunda. In
July 2007, he was also reportedly escorted by members of the Gambian
Police Intervention Unit to the Royal Victoria Teaching Hospital in
Banjul for high blood pressure treatment. He has not been seen since.

Both the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Community
Court of Justice and the UN Human Rights Council’s Working Group on
Arbitrary Detention have called for the immediate release of Mr. Manneh.

Durbin, Chairman on the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Human Rights
and Law, has been pressing for Chief Manneh’s release for over two
years. Joining him on today’s letter were Senators Feingold (D-WI),
Casey (D-PA), Cardin (D-MD) and Lieberman (I-CT).

We write to request your help with a tragic case in Commonwealth member-state the Gambia.

Chief Ebrima Manneh was a reporter with the Gambian newspaper the Daily
Observer who has been held incommunicado without charge or trial for
almost four years. Unfortunately, repeated attempts to work with
Gambian President Yahya Jammeh on this case have gone unanswered. Mr.
Manneh’s disappearance and the Gambian Government’s ongoing refusal to
account for his whereabouts are in direct contradiction of the strong
human rights standards embraced by the Commonwealth.

Chief Manneh was reportedly detained in July 2006 for political reasons
by plainclothes police officers thought to have been from the Gambian
National Intelligence Agency. Some reports suggest that he is being
held at the Fatoto Police Station in eastern Gambia, at Mile Two
Prison, or a National Intelligence Agency compound in Serekunda. In
July 2007, he was also reportedly escorted by members of the Gambian
Police Intervention Unit to the Royal Victoria Teaching Hospital in
Banjul for high blood pressure treatment.

The Media
Foundation for West Africa, an independent nongovernmental organization
based in Ghana, filed suit on Mr. Manneh’s behalf in the Economic
Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Community Court of Justice in
Nigeria. On June 5, 2008, the ECOWAS Court declared the arrest and
detention of Chief Manneh illegal and ordered his immediate release –
an order that has thus far been ignored by the Gambian government.
More recently, in response to a petition filed by Mr. Manneh’s
attorneys from the organization Freedom Now, the UN Human Rights
Council’s Working Group on Arbitrary Detention issued a sweeping
opinion against the Gambian Government calling for the “immediate
release of Mr. Manneh.”

Despite the UN Working Group opinion,
the judgment of the ECOWAS Court of Justice (a judgment that is binding
on the Gambian government), and repeated requests by Mr. Manneh’s
father and fellow journalists, President Jammeh refuses to answer even
basic questions about Manneh’s arrest or his whereabouts. Only last
year did Gambian Attorney General and Justice Minister Marie Saine
Firdaus make a rare comment on the case, telling the Gambian National
Assembly that Mr. Manneh is not and has not been in government custody.

Undoubtedly many members of the Commonwealth also share our concern
about the deteriorating political and human rights situation in the
Gambia, an issue you raised at the recent Commonwealth Heads of
Government meeting in Trinidad and Tobago. Accordingly, we
respectfully ask that you investigate Mr. Manneh’s disappearance and
press President Jammeh not only for his immediate release, but also to
reverse the Gambia’s poor human rights record.